On Monday, the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors held a special meeting to discuss the basketball playoff format for this season. Because of the pandemic, some schools aren’t competing. The purpose of Monday’s meeting was to ensure the post-season fair from region to region.
The adjustment, which the board did approve, will create ‘super regions’ for a region that has three or fewer teams. For instance, in Class A hoops right now, region seven only has three teams who are currently playing. Little Wound, Pine Ridge, Red Cloud, St. Francis Indian, and Todd County have all opted not to play. With the way the format is set up, the top two teams from each region qualify for the SoDak 16. So with only three teams in region seven, one of those teams would receive a bye into the SoDak 16, which is what the super regions would avoid.
Now, under the super region format, two regions would combine in the playoffs to compete for four SoDak 16 spots. The super regions format would be region one and two, region three and four, region five and six, and region seven and eight.
These guideline changes only matter to ‘A’ and ‘B’ as ‘AA’ only has eighteen teams, so the top-16 teams in ‘AA’ at the end of the regular season go straight to the SoDak 16 round.
As first reported by the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, it was also announced that all-day passes will NOT be available for the state basketball tournaments this year. Also, preparations are underway to allow family members priority over the general public at the state tournament games as well.
